rcb33483@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (R C. Buchmann) (11/03/89)
Here is another story of passerine rehab, this one with a more positive
ending. It's a bit long, but I hope all the netbirders enjoy it.
The day after I found the doomed Cedar Waxwing, I was walking along one of
my universities' main streets when I came upon an injured House Sparrow. The
sparrow appeared active and healthy, but, as I approached, could not fly away.
I quickly cornered the helpless sparrow and examined him. His underbelly
plumage, some of his primaries, and a few back feathers were almost totally
destroyed by something he had tried to bathe in (much later I found out that
the offending substance was tar). I picked him up and started to carry him to
the nearest bus stop. From there, I thought that I could get him into my dorm
room and clean him off a bit, then take him to our Vet-Med wildlife rehab
center. However the sparrow had other ideas. Just as I was nearing the bus
stop, the ungrateful little wretch bit me--hard--and immediately scutted under
a dumpster in a nearby parking lot. For over and hour and a half I tried to
coax the sparrow out from under the filthy dumpster, without success. Finally
a policeman shooed me away, saying that I was making a public scene. Away I
went to dinner at a nearby restaurant, intent on leaving the sparrow to it's
fate--certain death, because the night was supposed to be very cold.
However, after I came out of the restaurant, my conscience was really
bothering me, because of the loss of the cedar waxwing the previous day.
I returned to the parking lot. By then, the sparrow had left the dumpster
and was feeding in the parking lot. I gave chase, and it was another hour
before I caught him again. He bit me, escaped, and tried to scuttle under a
storage bin that was far too low for the sparrow to crawl under. But he
jammed himself under it as much as possible, and I wound up pulling him out
by the tailfeathers. As soon as he was in daylight, he started screaming
bloody murder, which almost caused me to lose him again. But this time I
had him for good.
Instead of going back to my dorm room, I made for the nearest public
bathroom, where I cleaned some of the mess off his underside, and had to
rescue him when he fluttered out of the sink and into a (clean) toilet.
Afterwards, I dried him off, wrapped him in toilet paper, and finally, by
nightfall, got him home to my dorm room. There I made arrangments to bring
him in to the Vet-Med rehab center. In the meantime, I wrapped the sparrow
up in a towel and named him Adric. I went out in front of my dorm building
to wait for a bus. All seemed well. However, the rambunctious little
sparrow almost sealed his fate again when, just as the bus pulled up, he got
out of the towel and scuttled into the darkness. If it wasn't for the fact
he landed on a pile of leaves nearly (where I could track him by sound) I
would have lost him for sure. I caught him again, wrapped him up more tightly,
and _walked_ him over to Vet-Med. All the time I held the towel as tightly as
was safe, for the trip had to be made over unlit fields, where he'd be lost
forever if he escaped. After a 30-minute walk, I finally made it it into the
rehab clinic at Vet-Med. There the fun continued, because as soon as the vet
tried to examine Adric, he bit _her_ and led both of us on a merry 5-minute
chase through the lab. Finally, thought, she got him in an incubator, where
his first act was to try to wedge himself into a ridiculously small drain at one
end.
This all happened about a week ago. Currently, Adric is doing fine.
The students at the rehab clinic have gotten most of the tar off his
feathers via strong detergent, and have fallen in love with the little
monster :->. They also reported that he escaped two more times, and that he
had this thing about biting the hands that are trying to heal him. Probably,
what will happen is they will keep him ever the winter, then, when he grows
his new spring plumage, they will release him.
And all this for a HOUSE SPARROW!! :-).
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R. Cody Buchmann ^.^
"Kehaar"
email: rcb33483@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu "Now I fly for you..." - Watership Down
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